Heritage is auctioning off a PSA 10 1st Edition Charizard. I happened to see it in person at the Mint Collective in Vegas. I was surprised to see scratches. Are a few scratches permissible and still get a 10?
Zoomed in picture from the Heritage site.
In person photo.
Itâs literally one of the first charizards ever graded and definitely one of the first PokĂ©mon card graded by psa. I bet psa did not have a standard when this was graded
that top scratch does look pretty bad, then again it is a really old certificate. curious to see if this will affect the final sale price.
At least the owner slapped a new label on it 
The centering looks really good and the back is also very clean. In my view, itâs a fair 10. I have seen 10s with similar scratches before. At the same time, Iâve also seen 10s with worse centering or minor white chip. PSA 10 is âvirtually perfectâ and not necessarily perfect. Thereâs small room for a very minor flaw.
If cracked and resubmitted would it get a 10? No.
If cracked and resubbed 10 times Iâd say 8/10 times it comes back an 8. 2/10 times it comes back a 9. These are by todayâs standards.
Also, if itâs been reholdered, this is a perfect example of the types of scratches that Iâve experienced from the reholder service sadly.
Itâs just the nature of grading. A PSA 10 does not have to be âperfectâ and the line between a 9 and 10 from card to card is interpreted by a bunch of different people on a bunch of different days. If you crack that card and send it back 100 times, then no, itâs probably not going to come back a 10 most of the time. But one time? Sure, thatâs possible. PSA has stood by their grade on much worse looking 10s than that.
10s can have scratches. Quite normal if rest of the card is clean.
In fact, I made the same observation some weeks ago and was wondering how this can be a 10. Old cert is the answer imo, but great that you brought it up.
A related question: I have not bought from heritage auctions; can you recommend buying from them? (wasnât there a scandal about graded games?) I peer at the German Charizards 9.5 and 9.
This is not that unusual for a 10, many of them have holo scratches.
It may be unusual for a charizord though.
I donât think itâs a controversial option that PSA is a little stricter with base set charizords today. Which might be the right move because these are probably some of the most resubmitted cards in the entire hobby as you have to protect against every copy becoming slightly overgraded
That being said, Pokemon was not really treated like a serious hobby when this card was submitted. So it was graded like a $200 card and not like a $200,000 card
So while I would be suprised if you cracked and resubmitted this particular card and it got a 10, I would not be surprised to submit a random $200 card today with a scratch like that and get a 10
no
Nice rebuttal. Youâve convinced me.
You must have some really cleans 8s
